Krakatoa (Indonesia)

“Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased” - John Steinbeck

I carried further south into Indonesia. I should have reversed directions if it weren't for the momentum pressing me in that way - south of the equator and into a new hemisphere and a new country - but as it was, I followed the natural progression of any traveler with his nose pinned to a certain degree of the compass. I entered Jakarta to the realization that it was no place to linger for long, and readily made my way to Sumatra, and the small shore town of Kalianda. All the while I was traveling; whether it be by bus, or ferry, or taxi, or by foot, I was alone in my foreign skin with my foreign affairs and my foreign gait. Surely South Sumatra is off any tourist route, and I found it out by the countenance of surprise on every local as I passed them by en route to no where in particular. Now, Indonesia is a Muslim country and as it happened to be the month of Ramadan and all the locals were traveling back to their villages and towns to be with family, it also happened that I was tramping through it all as passively as if I was traveling through a super market. To suggest the locals were confused by my attendance on their holiest of weeks would be correct but in need of an upgrade. Perhaps flabbergasted. I don't suppose I pass as a Muslim on any day of the calender year. As I strolled meaningless down the streets in search of necessities like food and water, parents would alert their children of the stranger behind them with a tap on the shoulder and a point in his direction, and the children would be struck possessed judging by their long and deep gazes. And as for the older children, why, I have never known a simple “Hello” to bring a group of respectable looking adolescents into spontaneous smiling and euphoric laughter. But this was the way of the town, and I grew quite comfortable with my instant celebrity, even sometimes thinking I deserved it. Once they were over their shock, and I got to communicating, I understood them to be very happy and hospitable people, always willing to point a wandering jackass in the right direction, and most times with a smile to go with it. Yes, it was good enough town, I think.

Now, to the matter of why I was in Kalianda to begin with: Krakatoa Volcano. It has international fame as one of the most powerful, and one of the most deadly eruptions in recorded human history. It also has international fame as being one of the most seismically active and dangerous volcanoes today. When it last erupted in 1883, it killed multitudes of Javanese and Sumatrans who were unfortunate enough to be caught in its demon path of fire, mud, hurling projectile boulders, and steaming, boiling ash. The scene would have been taken from the hallways of Hell. The scores of villages and communities obliterated from existence not even being the whole story. See, the volcano was so powerful that it blew itself off the map; this is to be taken literally if this is to be taken accurately. Once all the ash settled over thousands of new graves, the location where Krakatoa once stood in the Straights of Sumatra was entirely ocean. Indeed, it erupted so violently as to remove itself from the geographic space which we call the surface of the earth. By and by, in 1927, Krakatoa's offspring appeared in the form of Anak Krakatoa; several lava flows creating a new island volcano where its father once ruled. I would visit this ill-tempered child of the sea, as I wished to witness its volatility on a personal level close up and first hand. Volatility is best taken this way. Perhaps I would even tell it some jokes to ease the tension, but not before I saw its thermal features, the jokes perhaps rendering it dormant.

Very well, as comedy would have it, I entered into a double outrigger canoe with bamboo trunks for floatation, a weed whacker motor for propellant, a cracked slab of wood for rudder, a paint job for laughter, and a crew for the same. I was assured the thing was sea worthy by the man who was capitalizing from the day; the man who profited either in the success or failure of the voyage; him being paid up front, and insisting on it from the beginning of negotiations. He would be on land counting the money I had given him while I would be out on the sea battling the high swells of the straights with his three crew members who could not speak English. One of these smoked the whole while, another bailed out water which continued coming into the hull, and the third - our captain, our leader, our navigator, the man in charge of our lives, well, he was busy in and out of sleep at the helm. Presumably, he had perfected this strategy of piloting over the years to enhance his alertness in case of trouble. See, he would be well rested and ready to tackle any emergency that arose. Why, the only emergency was that he was steering the damned thing! Anyway, this motley crew of rubes did their job, which apparently was to keep me alive, so I suppose all that was not lost was gained; except the 95 dollars.

The island of Anak Krakatoa smolders with sulfurous steam winding up through its various vents. As the wind shifts direction, one gets the full wall of odor at once, and then is relieved by another shift in wind direction. During these intervals of fresh breathable air, I hiked up the flank of the volcano over basalt so sharp that it cut through my boots with little effort. As I approached the last safe outlook before the cone became too dangerous to go further, I rested and took in the whole thing. Indeed, the volcano is alive with activity and seems almost to have a personality, and not a particularly nice one. In fact, I think if it could say anything, it has already said it in 1883, and will invariably say it again for all those within earshot, though it shall certainly be a short lesson! Very well, I had my time enjoying the Jurassic feel of the landscape with all its eccentricities and peculiarities and, by and by, I left the island and its blackness behind in favor of the white sand beaches of the mainland, where I laid content the rest of the day, thus ending this chapter of Krakatoa.